JAPAN: They Like Jack

For Tokyo's bemused U.S. residents it was hard to believe that they were living in the
same city that only six months ago had turned out thousands of screaming demonstrators
against "U.S. imperialism." As more than 56 million Japanese voters prepared to go to
elect a new Diet this week, the most idolized politician in the country
was a 43-year-old AmericanPresident-elect John F. Kennedy.

A bar on Tokyo's gaudy Ginza was early in recognizing the onrush of
another of the overnight emotional flip-flops characteristic of Japan's
volatile people. It celebrated Kennedy's election with free beer for
all males who...